


Portland Rain

by Glinda



Category: Leverage
Genre: Background Relationships, Gen, Identity Issues, Immigration & Emigration, Post-Canon, Presents, wedding presents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 03:17:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15379500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: As a wedding present, the team steal Sophie something they aren't entirely sure she wants.





	Portland Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the daily_prompt - Immigrant
> 
> Disclaimer: I know very little about the US Immigration system that wasn't picked up from popular culture. (There was a weird trend in certain types of 90s rom coms to have Europeans - and to a lesser extent Canadians - making marriages of convenience to US citizens for green-cards, it was a whole thing.) The UCIS website was not as helpful as it thinks it is, and Google probably now thinks I'm considering emmigrating to the States... so apologies for the no doubt raging inaccuracies.

Sophie eyes the seemingly innocent piece of identification sitting on the desk in front of her suspiciously. 

“I thought they weren’t actually green any more,” she observes.

“They went back to making them green in 2010,” Hardison tells her.

It’s hardly the first time that Hardison has handed her an ID, she generally has IDs for at least three different identities on her at any one time, and his are the very best. This though, is something else entirely. 

“Its…”

“Real?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, it’s real. You’re married to an American citizen, Nate’s your qualifying relative – a lawful permanent resident.” Off her look he continues, “hey, The Italian kept her side of the bargain, the only crime Nate’s actually been charged with, was expunged from his records, legally he’s not actually an ex-con. And you’ve never actually been arrested under your real name; she’s cleaner than anything I could fake for you.”

“What about the…” she twirls her hand vaguely, as the name of the gizmo escapes her, “chip in the card, won’t facial recognition get me anyway?” 

“Ah, now _that_ was my real contribution to this whole shebang. See the card is legit, bought and paid for in an entirely legal fashion, but the RFID in it, is a Hardison special. It looks like the real thing; it even came from the same factory as the real thing, and was inserted into the card in the actual place alongside every other green card. However, every time you pass through one of biometric scanner with it, it will scramble the facial recognition, so that no one can connect it with any of your other IDs…or any outstanding warrants I haven’t been able to track down. Won’t help if you run into a law enforcement officer that actually knows you, but as far as any computerised search is concerned, this you? Doesn’t exist.” 

Sophie can feel how proud of himself he is for his work. Yet she can also feel his caution too. It’s impressive to be sure, but she understands why he wouldn’t be certain how she’d react to it. 

Sophie has had passports in dozens of different names, asserting her to be a national of dozens more countries, and she’s lived and worked, legally and illegally in a handful more. She’s always made sure to be alluringly ‘foreign’ wherever she’s washed up, using people’s assumptions and prejudices to her advantage. In her heart though she’s always been British, a Londoner even, despite having spent a good half of her adult life stateside. (And most of the rest of it in mainland Europe.) This is a big step for her. She could vote – not that that’s stopped her before – even if only in local elections. This is the ultimate in going straight. She could become a citizen one day if she wanted. Sophie doesn’t know how she feels about that.

Still she hears what he isn’t saying, what both he and Parker – and she suspects she sees Eliot’s hand in this too – are saying with this gift. That they are her family; that however far away she goes; she has a home here with them. And that’s worth more than any amount of precious stones.

“That’s a really sweet wedding present, Hardison,” she tells him. 

“Well, we wanted to get you something you’d actually use.”


End file.
